December 14, 2018

Alumni Spotlight - Talasjah Westhersby (Galileo, Class of 2018)

Virginia Commonwealth Games Announce 2018 Athletes of the Year

Virginia Amateur Sports, Inc (VAS) organizers of the Virginia Commonwealth Games at Liberty University annual athletes of the year have been selected: Talasjah Westhersby of Danville was named Youth – Female Athlete of the Year, Zachary Coldsnow of Yorktown was named Youth – Male Athlete of the Year, Erika Pierce of Charlottesville was named Adult – Female Athlete of the Year, and Austin Lewis of Stoney Creek was named Adult – Male Athlete of the Year.

These athletes were selected from the nominees in their category. Talasjah was a gold medalist in Track & Field in the 2018 Games. Talasjah is the highest achieving athlete at her school, six time State Champion and honor student. She exhibited leadership, commitment and perseverance both on and off the track. Outside of her track commitment Talasjah volunteers within her community. She was awarded Graduate of Distinction her senior year. Graduate of Distinction recognizes student accomplishments in five categories: academic achievement, attendance, citizenship, community service and participation in extra-curricular and co-curricular activities. Students must accumulate points in each of the five areas in order to qualify.

See below for the entire news release. For more information on the Games, visit here.

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Congratulations Talasjah! We are so proud of you! Hope you are doing well at Radford!

1Dream 1Team Fundraising Gala - An Evening with the 3EBOYZ - SAVE THE DATE

THE DREAM TEAM

Former Dan River High School Wildcats football stars and recent NFL draft picks, Trey, Terrell, and Tremaine Edmunds want to help the youth in the place they call home. This inaugural fundraising dinner will raise money for scholarships to support high school athletes as well as the Danville Church-Based Tutorial Program, which provides after-school tutoring to promote student success.

AN EDMUNDS EVENING

The Gala will be a fun, elegant evening of dining, celebrities, and entertainment that is not to be missed. The event will be held on Saturday, February 23, 2019, at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville. There will be live music, silent auctions of many NFL items, as well as scholarship presentations and remarks by the Edmunds brothers.

Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite under 1Dream 1Team or by clicking here.

Looking at the guest speakers, I must admit, as a Hokie fanatic, I am very excited that Coach Beamer will be in attendance! See the below flyer for additional information.

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ACEC Spotlights Emily Thomas

ACEC celebrates each of its student successes, some are just a little more exciting. Emily recently received her GED Diploma after attending school for over two years. All of her teachers wish her luck in her transition to working in childcare. Please call Mary Dumont, at 434.799.6471, if you or someone you know could use their GED Diploma in the new year.

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Jones and Culley Attend Workforce Summit

On Wednesday, December 12, 2018, the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce presented a Workforce Summit with Dr. Megan Healy, Chief Workforce Development Advisor, Office of the Governor and Dr. Julie Brown, Director of Advanced Learning, Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. The Summit concluded with a panel discussion on the role of the private sector in Developing the Regional Talent Pipeline. The panel discussion was facilitated by Alexis Earnhardt, Chamber President and CEO, and included Frank Della Pia, Executive Director, Global Center for Automotive Performance Simulation and Tracy Mallard, Biostatistician for Noblis.

The Passport program, which provides all middle school students in DPS access to career and college readiness curricula and programs, was highlighted during the panel discussion. Danville Public Schools was represented by Dr. Stanley Jones and CTE Coordinator, Joyce Culley. Pictured below is Dr. Megan Healy.

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Governor Announces VA School Principals Appreciation Week

Governor Northam has issued a proclamation to name January 20 - 26, 2019 Virginia School Principals Appreciation Week. For the full proclamation, click here. Thank you for all that you do for our students - Rhonda Wright, Jay Jones, James Kirkpatrick, Thomas Takacs, Sandy Mitchell, Everett Johnson, Wayne Mayo, Tonya Steele, Kim Agnor, Dave Cochran, Michelle Ramsey, Jay Lancaster, Rick Wieringo, and Daphne Wall. It is greatly appreciated! Now we need an AP Appreciation Week!

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Talk About Teamwork!

The staff at Bonner and the members of Union Church partnered to collect and distribute over 2,000 bags of food to our students who have been out of school all week. The distribution was held at Union Church and deliveries were made to several neighborhoods including: Purdum Woods, Cardinal Village, Grove Park, Woodside, and Pleasant View. It takes a village - thank you to Union Church!

This effort all started as a text between dedicated and caring teachers at Bonner who then engaged Union Church! Job well done.

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DPS Provides Bag Lunches to Students - the Power of Social Media

On Friday, December 14, 2018, Danville Public Schools distributed bag lunches at Gibson Elementary from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. The facebook post below spread like wildfire just like the post for Bonner- you can see in the below facebook snippet the number of people it reached and the number of engagements. Thanks to all of you who shared the post! As a result of the post, WSLS and WDBJ7 will be doing interviews today at Bonner, Union Church, and Gibson.

This all came about because we know that we have a large population of students who are food insecure. While school is out we all struggle with the harsh reality that some of our kids don't eat. Thanks to Phillip Gardner and representatives from Child Nutrition for filling this void and stuffing over 2,500 bag lunches for our kids!

While doing some research on food insecurity, I found this article to be very interesting as it focuses on how hunger has chronic and short-term effects on student learning. The article states that even when schools provide free breakfast and lunch, if a student doesn’t get dinner at home they could be famished by school time. For the full article, please click here.

"Is it misbehavior or a missed meal?"

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